DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1183#0068
50
AN ESSAY ON THE
to the principal point of the story, or giving bulk and strength to the
foreground figures. Add to these, figures repeating by their form the
principal points, so as to give those richness by extending their shape,
or productive of harmony by their action and expression, emanating from
those of the principal actors. These remarks more immediately apply to
the mental portion of the work, and of works of the highest department
in the art; but many of them also may be made applicable to other
branches, such as the combining of several heads for the purpose of
preserving a mass of flesh colour, and to prevent spottiness in the effect;
or giving pleasure to the eye, by the forms taking pleasing shapes; or
assisting deception, by lines combining to give strength and magnitude to
the foreground objects, or diminished delicacy to the more distant: in
short, a knowledge of the higher requisites of painting is of the greatest
importance in all the departments, whether in giving dignity to portraiture,
such as Titian's, or to landscapes, such as his also, and those of Annibale
Carrache, Salvator Rosa, or Nicolo Poussin. Towards gaining perfection
in poetry, we find writers recommending this course of investigation.
Addison says, " a poet should be very well versed in every thing that is
noble and stately in the productions of art, whether it appears in painting
or statuary; in the great works of architecture, which are in their present
glory, or in the ruins of those which flourished in former ages. Such
advantages as these help to open a man's thoughts, and to enlarge his
imagination, and will therefore have their influence on all kinds of writing,
if the author knows how to make right use of them22." Reynolds recom-
22 The same remarks which Dr. Johnson applies to poetry may be here made use of to
indicate the sources of instruction for those who aspire to the higher walks of painting: " By the
general consent of critics, the first praise of genius is due to the writer of an epic poem, as it
requires an assemblage of all the powers which are singly sufficient for other compositions.
Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth, by calling imagination to the help of reason.
Epic poetry undertakes to teach the most important truths by the most pleasing precepts, and
therefore relates some great event in the most affecting manner. History must supply the writer
with the rudiments of narration, which he must improve and exalt by a nobler art, must animate
AN ESSAY ON THE
to the principal point of the story, or giving bulk and strength to the
foreground figures. Add to these, figures repeating by their form the
principal points, so as to give those richness by extending their shape,
or productive of harmony by their action and expression, emanating from
those of the principal actors. These remarks more immediately apply to
the mental portion of the work, and of works of the highest department
in the art; but many of them also may be made applicable to other
branches, such as the combining of several heads for the purpose of
preserving a mass of flesh colour, and to prevent spottiness in the effect;
or giving pleasure to the eye, by the forms taking pleasing shapes; or
assisting deception, by lines combining to give strength and magnitude to
the foreground objects, or diminished delicacy to the more distant: in
short, a knowledge of the higher requisites of painting is of the greatest
importance in all the departments, whether in giving dignity to portraiture,
such as Titian's, or to landscapes, such as his also, and those of Annibale
Carrache, Salvator Rosa, or Nicolo Poussin. Towards gaining perfection
in poetry, we find writers recommending this course of investigation.
Addison says, " a poet should be very well versed in every thing that is
noble and stately in the productions of art, whether it appears in painting
or statuary; in the great works of architecture, which are in their present
glory, or in the ruins of those which flourished in former ages. Such
advantages as these help to open a man's thoughts, and to enlarge his
imagination, and will therefore have their influence on all kinds of writing,
if the author knows how to make right use of them22." Reynolds recom-
22 The same remarks which Dr. Johnson applies to poetry may be here made use of to
indicate the sources of instruction for those who aspire to the higher walks of painting: " By the
general consent of critics, the first praise of genius is due to the writer of an epic poem, as it
requires an assemblage of all the powers which are singly sufficient for other compositions.
Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth, by calling imagination to the help of reason.
Epic poetry undertakes to teach the most important truths by the most pleasing precepts, and
therefore relates some great event in the most affecting manner. History must supply the writer
with the rudiments of narration, which he must improve and exalt by a nobler art, must animate